Salon.com > government regulationhttp://www.salon.com
Sun, 02 Aug 2015 22:00:00 +0000enhourly1Ice cream is killing us: Blue Bell, Listeria and America’s frightening food safety gapshttp://www.salon.com/2015/04/24/americas_frightening_food_safety_gaps_how_our_massive_complex_system_undermines_public_health/
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/24/americas_frightening_food_safety_gaps_how_our_massive_complex_system_undermines_public_health/#commentsFri, 24 Apr 2015 09:58:00 +0000Lindsay Abramshttp://www.salon.com/?p=13943372It isn't every day that a food company recalls its entire inventory of products, as Blue Bell did this week after its ice cream was linked to a multi-state listeria outbreak going back as far as 2010 that killed three patients and sickened at least seven others.

While it was the most serious by far, it was only the latest of several high-profile recalls this year attributed to a listeria risk. Earlier in April, Sabra announced that it was pulling 30,000 cases of its popular hummus after a random sample tested positive for contamination. And several weeks before that, listeria was discovered in organic spinach, prompting a massive recall from the organic brand Amy's Kitchen, along with some half a dozen other companies and retailers that purchased the same spinach.

That these are brands most would associate with quality may be part of the reason why the recalls were such big news. But, experts say, they weren't totally surprising.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/04/24/americas_frightening_food_safety_gaps_how_our_massive_complex_system_undermines_public_health/feed/14GOP senator: Don’t make employees wash their hands after going to the bathroom, because freedomhttp://www.salon.com/2015/02/03/gop_senator_dont_make_employees_wash_their_hands_after_going_to_the_bathroom_because_freedom/
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/03/gop_senator_dont_make_employees_wash_their_hands_after_going_to_the_bathroom_because_freedom/#commentsTue, 03 Feb 2015 19:08:00 +0000Luke Brinkerhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13877631For much of the past 36 or so hours, we've heard from a number of Republicans that risking the occasional measles outbreak is simply the price of liberty. While Rand Paul and Chris Christie were busy championing the sacred right to expose others to disease, it fell to freshman Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) to take up the next great cause in the fight for freedom from regulatory overreach. We speak, of course, of the right of restaurants not to require their employees to wash their hands after using the restroom.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Monday, Tillis related a story from his tenure in the North Carolina legislature to help explain his overarching philosophy on the finer points of hand-washing.

]]>http://www.salon.com/2015/02/03/gop_senator_dont_make_employees_wash_their_hands_after_going_to_the_bathroom_because_freedom/feed/524West Virginia’s “wake-up call”: Even Republicans want more coal industry regulationhttp://www.salon.com/2014/02/24/west_virginias_wake_up_call_even_republicans_want_more_coal_industry_regulation/
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/24/west_virginias_wake_up_call_even_republicans_want_more_coal_industry_regulation/#commentsMon, 24 Feb 2014 18:58:00 +0000Lindsay Abramshttp://www.salon.com/?p=13610577There's nothing like a major chemical leak knocking out your water supply to make you question whether the government is doing enough to regulate the coal industry. A second, coal industry-related spill turning a river "black like death" only drives home the point.

The vast majority of West Virginians -- across all ages, education levels, incomes and political persuasions -- agree that government should have done more to address environmental threats, according to a poll conducted for the Sierra Club by Hart Research Associates. The survey, which questioned 504 voters, found that most saw January's spill as a "wake-up call" that will influence the way they elect officials in the future. Some of the more intriguing findings:

]]>http://www.salon.com/2014/02/24/west_virginias_wake_up_call_even_republicans_want_more_coal_industry_regulation/feed/23Boom time for Spanish debt collectorshttp://www.salon.com/2013/08/09/the_moneys_rolling_in_for_spanish_debt_collectors_newscre/
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/09/the_moneys_rolling_in_for_spanish_debt_collectors_newscre/#commentsFri, 09 Aug 2013 19:31:00 +0000tfisherhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13436736Shameless. That is the word on everyone's lips as each day more revelations surface about the venality and corruption of Spain's political and business class. And yet there is one sector of Spanish business that is predicated on shame. It is the cobrador del frac (the frock-coated debt collector), a peculiarly Spanish institution that is booming as thousands of businesses go to the wall.

It is a simple and powerful device. If you see a man dressed in a black frock coat and top hat, carrying a black brief case standing outside an office, a house or next to someone's table in a restaurant, you know that person has not paid their debts. In effect, they are being named and shamed.

"The figure of the cobrador is so well known he doesn't have to say anything," says Juan Lorca, manager of the Barcelona office of the Cobrador del Frac, a company that has branches all over Spain and Portugal and which has been chasing debtors for the past 25 years.

"All they have to do is stand there. They never speak to the subject. They never do more than hand the debtor our card."

]]>http://www.salon.com/2013/08/09/the_moneys_rolling_in_for_spanish_debt_collectors_newscre/feed/0Majority of chemicals in household products have never been independently testedhttp://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/majority_of_chemicals_in_household_products_have_never_been_independently_tested_for_safety/
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/majority_of_chemicals_in_household_products_have_never_been_independently_tested_for_safety/#commentsSun, 14 Apr 2013 16:59:00 +0000kmcdonoughhttp://www.salon.com/?p=13270518Current law regulating industrial chemicals commonly used in household products rarely requires companies to provide the federal government with adequate information about their safety, a new report finds.

"Regulators, doctors, environmentalists and the chemical industry agree that the country’s main chemical safety law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, needs fixing," Ian Urbina wrote in The New York Times on Sunday.